Interrogating the notion of giving voice: designing for polyphony in game-based learning ecologies

ABSTRACT

This paper illuminates how a young person and adults learned to design for robust learning in the context of video-game play. We argue that consequential learning can emerge through the intentional design of learning spaces where normative conceptions of novice and expert are re-imagined. Our analyses revealed that everyday digital game play was a rich zone of learning, fostering principled polyphony: the orchestration and symphonic arrangement of multiple voices and tools. Drawing on a cultural historical approach, we show how young people and adults create new social futures, through robust collaboration and the creation of syncretic sociotechnical arrangements.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Of note, this course was designed and taught by the first and second author in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020. Importantly, the course was conceived in response to local and distal requests from preservice and in-service teachers for university-based courses that addressed critical pedagogies and the role of everyday technologies.